This Time
by TwistedSky
Summary: Set post-4x3. Jo/Zane.


Disclaimer: I own nothing except my own mind. And really, sometimes I wonder about that. Set post-4x3.

* * *

She _misses _him.

Except, maybe you couldn't miss what wasn't, well, missing. After all, he was still there. He was Zane, but he wasn't _her _Zane. And yet, he was.

It was frustrating, and messy.

She doesn't like it.

She was happy-kind of-being the Head of Security for Global Dynamics. She deserved the job. As she often reminded Carter, she was good at what she did. Still, she pined somewhat for the world wherein she and Jack were a team. Because they weren't a team anymore, but she was where she belonged. It was all very complicated.

It was tough, realizing that she was living in a world that wasn't quite hers, and she couldn't tell anyone. Fargo was an annoying twat, Allison was preoccupied with Kevin and the baby, Jack was distracted by Tess, and Henry . . . well, who knew what he was up to. She certainly wasn't going to trust their time traveling "friend." She didn't trust him, and she couldn't trust much of anyone anymore.

_She's lonely._

That would surprise almost anyone if they were to know it. She was hard, and no nonsense. Most thought she was a loner, that she wasn't a social butterfly who required people to feel happy-which was actually true, but that didn't mean that she hated all people, or that she wasn't capable of being lonely. People didn't think her capable of being soft, or emotional. She was, Zane had known that.

Her Zane had known that. She wished every moment of every day that she'd just said yes. So that he would know.

She wondered fleetingly whether or not the world they lived in still existed, in some sort of alternate universe way. If Zane missed her, or if that world had just ceased to exist. Or if the Jo that should have been here were there . . . Not that it mattered, because there was little chance of them managing to get back home.

This was home now.

She and Zane were nothing more than semi-nemeses in this reality. But maybe . . . they could be more. During the weird Zombie fiasco she'd been so angry at him, and scared for him that she'd pressed him up against the wall, and seen something that could have been desire in his eyes. Maybe she was delusional, or imagining what she wanted to be true. It didn't really matter.

She loved Zane-and she wasn't giving up without a fight.

* * *

Lately Jo Lupo had been acting . . . strange, to say the least.

She wasn't the only one, but she was, indeed, the one he'd noticed.

He'd always had a bit of a thing for her, but when he'd asked her out, she'd turned him down flat. Not just once, but over and over again. So, because he wasn't a glutton for punishment-despite what some seemed to believe he didn't pull his stunts because he liked being punished, but because he liked pushing the boundaries, seeing what he could get away with-he stopped asking.

After all, she wasn't the only woman in town, just the most interesting.

He liked playing with her, pushing her, seeing how far he could take it, and it gave him a dark sort of pleasure to "punish" her for being too cowardly to give him a chance. Give them a chance.

Things were different now, though.

Since Founder's Day, she'd changed, especially in how she acted towards him. It was almost as if she weren't the same Jo that had turned him down for months on end. As if, she might have just changed her mind.

He certainly hoped so, after all, he was kinda going out on a limb here, asking her out again. It had been a long time, over a year, since he'd bothered. In the mean time, he played practical jokes, teased her incessantly, and pretended that he didn't take her rejection seriously.

Things were about to change though. He hoped so, anyway.

* * *

Jo wasn't quite in a hurry, but she was very distracted. So as she semi-rushed through the halls of Global Dynamics, she looked down for a moment, distracted, when she felt herself hit someone.

They both fell.

"Gosh, Lupo, can't look where you're going?"

_Zane_.

"Not anymore than you can, apparently."

They both got up without the help of the other. They were stubborn that way.

He smiled, "Actually, I'm glad I ran into you. Though not, you know, _into _you."

She felt a little breathless and off-kilter. "You are?" _Why_?

"There's a record of some sort of security breach attempt in my lab, you should probably check it out."

Oh. She felt a surge of disappointment. "Okay, I'll take a look at it. " She made a move to leave.

As she went to pass him, he grabbed her arm, turned to her. "I know it's kind of self-defeating, and I know you asked me to stop. And I did, didn't I? But I feel like something's changed, like I should take another chance. I mean, I tried so hard, and it would be kind of sad if now I didn't try."

He was kind of rambling. And, what the hell was he talking about?

"What are you getting at, Zane?"

"I'm going to ask you one last time, because I really don't enjoy this kind of rejection. Will you go out with me, or not?"

That explained _a lot._ The her that should be here pushed Zane away. Foolish woman. Then again, she'd almost done the same.

She wasn't saying anything. That probably meant no. "Okay, I get it."

"What? Oh, no. No. Yes. I mean yes."

"Which is it? Yes or no?"

"Yes, I'll go out with you."

"Okay. Tonight. Because I don't want you to change your mind."

She thought about arguing that she was a woman of her word, but then realized that she really wanted to be with Zane tonight. Just spend time with him. So it really didn't matter.

"I won't. I'll see you later."

Yes, she would.

* * *

Maybe this could work. Maybe all hope wasn't lost. Maybe she and Zane-even if he wasn't her Zane-could at least get some semblance of what she and her Zane had together.

For now she was just going to enjoy being with Zane.

While she was at it, she was going to try not to mess it up this time.

She would try, and hope.

* * *

Review?


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